Allyson Felix (USA) (© Kirby Lee)
The 17yearold Allyson Felix finished second in the 200m in a national high school record of 23.14 in the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships in Boston (3 March) to become the youngest member of the U.S. team for this weekend’s IAAF World Championships in Birmingham (14-16 March).
Felix, a Los Angeles Baptist High senior, lives in Southern California less than 50km from where Marion Jones was raised and attended high school, and this spring, Felix hopes to take a shot at Jones’ national high school outdoor record of 22.58 set in 1992.
Last year, Felix ran 22.83 to move into third on the all-time list despite being hampered by a right hamstring injury.
“I’d definitely like to make an attempt at it,” Felix said about Jones’ 200m standard. ”I still have a lot of work to get there and need to improve a little to get close to it.”
Felix won the 2001 IAAF World Youth Games 100m final and ran on the U.S. sprint relay team that set a world best.
Although injured last year, Felix broke 23 seconds in the 200m outdoors for the top three U.S. high school times and finished fifth in the 200m in the World Junior Championships. The severity of her hamstring condition was so great that Felix was unsure that she would be able to run in the World Junior meet.
“It was extremely frustrating that I wasn’t able to do what I knew that I was capable of doing.”
Felix didn’t have many expectations for the indoor season after taking several months from running in the autumn to allow her hamstring to heal. The USATF Indoor National was only her third 200m competition. Two weeks earlier, Felix ran 23.57 in the Simplot Games in Pocatello for the then third-best U.S. high school indoor mark of all-time.
Felix only decided to run in the senior national meet as a tune for the National Scholastic Championships in New York. Those plans were revised after her runner-up finish in Boston where she held off 2001 World 200m bronze medallist Kelli White for the final berth in Birmingham.
“I was just going there to get a good time,” commented Felix. “I am not in my best shape but I am getting there. I am just so happy to be healthy. I didn’t set my goals too high and expect to make the team. I thought the competition would help me drop my time.”
In the semifinals in Boston, Felix tied the high school record of 23.22 set by Sanya Richards last year. In the final, Felix had extra incentive to run faster. Richards, the 2002 U.S. High School of the Athlete of the Year, edged Felix in the 200m in last year’s 2002 Junior National Championships, after Felix collapsed at the finish with a hamstring strain.
“It gave me extra motivation. It helps make up for it. In the final, I was more excited to see what my time was after I tied the record in the prelims. I had a little more confidence. I was a little more relaxed and comfortable.”
Felix will be taking a similar approach to racing in Birmingham against competitors that are nearly twice her age. She acknowledges just making it out of the first round could be a daunting task.
“It would be nice to improve, being the youngest is fine. It’s an honour and a privilege to be on the track with the veterans. They’re always encouraging and supportive. There’s not as much pressure as a high school meet because nobody expects anything.”
Speed runs in Felix’s family. Her brother Wes, 19, finished third in the 200m in the 2002 World Junior championships and ran on the U.S. world-record setting 400m relay.
In the autumn, Allyson will join her brother at the University of Southern California, the same university that four-time NCAA 100m champion Angela Williams attended. Williams, the U.S. 60m champion, will be among the contenders in the event in Birmingham.
“I am looking forward to getting to know Angela,” Felix said. “I am just excited. It’s a lot more than the competition. I am going for the whole experience, the travelling and how the basic process of how everything works and to do my best.”
Kirby Lee for the IAAF
